We are only beginning to see the applications of smart phones to improve peoples lives. In this TED talk, Paul Conneally explores some of the possibilities (citizen mapping, crowd-sourced disaster recovery, etc.) that is just sitting in the palm of our collective hands.

This is why ICT is important. No. Vital! Our students need to see things like this so that they understand the positive aspects of technology. They need to see that SMS, Facebook & Twitter are so much more than just a way sharing silly photos of themselves. This technology has the power to affect real, positive change.

On July 31st India and Bangladesh will exchange 162 parcels of land, each of which happens to lie on the wrong side of the Indo-Bangladesh border. The end of these enclaves follows an agreement made between India and Bangladesh on June 6th. The territories along the world’s craziest border include the pièce de résistance of strange geography: the world’s only “counter-counter-enclave”: a patch of India surrounded by Bangladeshi territory, inside an Indian enclave within Bangladesh. How did the enclaves come into existence?The enclaves are invisible on most maps; most are invisible on the ground too. But they became an evident problem for their 50,000-odd inhabitants with the emergence of passport and visa controls. Independent India and Bangladesh—part of Pakistan until 1971—each refused to let the other administer its exclaves, leaving their people effectively stateless.According to Reece Jones, a political geographer, the plots were cut from larger territories by treaties signed in 1711 and 1713 between the maharaja of Cooch Behar and the Mughal emperor in Delhi, bringing to an end a series of minor wars.It was partition, the division of India and Pakistan, that turned the enclaves into a no-man’s-land. The Hindu maharaja of Cooch Behar chose to join India in 1949 and he brought with him the ex-Mughal, ex-British possessions he inherited. Enclaves on the other side of the new border were swallowed (but not digested) by East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh.

This thing is sick! I would love to make one of these i would play with this thing for hours and I'm an adult. And they say video games are useless, the kinect can be used for things other than dance offs and such.

"In this Feed the Future video, narrator Matt Damon discusses the importance of increasing food production around the world and notes the importance of equipping women with the right tools, training, and technology to see as much as a 30 percent increase in food production. To feed our growing population we need to increase food production by 70 percent before 2050. Women make up the majority of the agricultural workforce in many areas of the world."

A colleague mine thought that the ideas in this video were so obvious and non-controversial, he said, "Why does this even need to be stated? Why would we exclude women from agriculture?" The simple answer is that it wouldn't need to be stated if women around the world did have equal access to resources. For many of the world's poor, this is where the rubber meets the road.

This video is about how women make up the majority of the agricultural workforce and that giving them access to land, water, markets, and technology could increase food production by 30%. This in return would help boost the economy. Places such as Kenya have given women the same resources as men and have seen a 22% increase in crop production. In Brazil, programs targeting women in agriculture have helped cut the population in extreme poverty by half and malnutrition by 73%. This video encourages people around the world to help give women the resources they need in order to increase the food production and economy.

This relates to unit 5 because it deals with agriculture and particularly women's roles in agriculture. This video explains how increased resources can help end world hunger. Women are not given as much opportunity as men and this video expresses need to invest in women's rights.

A great primer for discussions over border disputes. In this modern geopolitical climate, some of these claims can seem aggressive to say the least. The strategies/responses can also be very interesting when military options are put aside.

I was looking at the disputes between the Paracel Islands, the Spratly Islands, and the Scarborough Shoal. What I notices with all oft he disputes, the land being fought over is all claimed by China but the land location itself is all closer to the country china is disputing it over. For the Paracel Islands, China and Vietnam are in dispute especially after China put 2 oil rigs by their land. The other dispute between the Spratly Islands, China and the Philippines each claim entire ownership of the lands but Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei all claim some part of the islands as well. For the Scarborough Shoal, it is a lot closer to the Philippines than it is to China but China claims it as their own since they discovered the land. Now china has restricted access to the island following a standoff.

50 years of communist rule still affect opportunities in Germany today, as these maps show. What they don't show is the social mirror that each provides to the other and the rich discussions about social policy that result. Reunification has been an expensive exercise for Germany, however one that it is committed to.

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but its influence is still present in today's Germany. History plays a key role in the shaping of political boundaries and that history is clearly evident in Germany. The line where the Berlin wall once stood still divides the country economically. The western part of Germany is far more economically affluent than the east. The USSR may be gone, but its influence still remains.

Despite the Ebola outbreak currently only affecting three countries that together make up less than 2% of the total area of Africa, the perception among some is that the entire continent of Africa is currently at risk.

I always enjoyed TED videos. What really struck me was the opening sentence of the video, "everything is everywhere these days." This is so true in so many ways. The video uses different examples that you can find in different stores from places all over the world. How many things can you could in your bedroom that says "Made in China" or some other place other than the US? This is very common as we all know. Products and goods come from all over the world and even over seas. This is a process that we call globalization. However, the video introduces a process called containerization. This process saves an ample amount of time for the workers. The process was a success. "shrinking the world and enlarging human choice."

Globalization has connected the world in such a way that we hadn't thought possible. This idea has created rising economies all over the world and has made transport of goods and services move faster and continues to increase this rate with advances in technology. Containerization is a staple of globalization and without it, none of these products would be able to get from country to country. In essence it has developed the world of import and exports. To add to this success, globalization has also created jobs and communities which revolve heavily around the transport of goods. It saves time by using massive containers to move goods and it creates opportunities in places where it had not been possible before.

I believe this video is very interesting. It tells us that everything we have today is thanks to globalization and the reason we have it so fast is because of shipping containers! In the video it told me that before my time it was impossible to get swordfish from Japan or cheeses from France, but now thanks to globalization it is all possible. Globalization is even behind the reason how our phones were made!

"When tourists visit sub-Saharan Africa, they often wonder 'Why there are no historical buildings or monuments?' The reason is simple. Europeans destroyed most of them. We only have a few drawings and descriptions by travelers who visited the places before their destruction. In some places, ruins are still visible. Many cities were abandoned when Europeans brought exotic diseases (smallpox and influenza) which started spreading and killing people. Most of those cities lie hidden. In fact the biggest part of Africa history is still under the ground."

This article is a good introduction to historical African urbanism. It is also a powerful reminder that the landscape does not only teach us based on what we see--the landscape can be a powerful witness by reminding us of the what is glaringly absent.

We learned last year that many of the effects of climate change are irreversible. Sea levels have been rising at a greater rate year after year, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates they could rise by another meter or more by the end of this century.

Perhaps the most fundamental water fact about California is that, historically, water was extremely scarce in the southern two-thirds of the state. The vast majority of precipitation occurs up north, mainly in the winter.

This video discusses the concept of India becoming a Superpower, which has for a long time been predicted (BRIC). The BRIC countries are Brazil, Russia, India, and China. China is currently the strongest out of the group, but in this piece it is discussed how India can itself become a regional power. India's main geographic way to secure itself as a superpower is to control the Kashmir region, as Pakistan and China can share a border if India is not there. For India this is concerning as China could influence Pakistan, a long time rival of India, to invade and give them support. Another weakness of India is the "federation, almost a confederation" idea that surrounds the power of the states in the country. India is supposed to be a democracy like the United States, but because of its large size and various ethnic backgrounds, it is hard to unify all the states. However, India does have a large population and if the country continues to modernize and solves the Kashmir problem it will be in a stronger position to become a regional player. Another thing that India will have to do is to have good relations with Bangladesh, so China can't influence attacks from either direction.

Once referred to as the crown of British Empire, India is now resurging as a great power. The Ganges River gives some of the most fertile land in the world at its delta, and runs through India like the Mississippi. Geographically isolated on most of its borders, with mountain ranges and oceans leaves India disconnected or protected, like a castle. In this isolation there is a lot of conflicts, without proper dams to protect this fertile land, it is always at a flood threat. All of India’s major cities are situated at the base of rivers to promote expansions. If India cannot secure water for the bordering nations it will not be able to become a superpower, and lower the gap between rich and poor.

If you were to ask me before watching this video, i would say absolutely. They have the capability because they are full of intelligent people, they also have enough people to do it. Something is just holding them back from moving forward...

"Walk along the streets of London and it’s not uncommon to hear a variety of langauges jostling for space in your eardrums. Step inside a tube carriage on the underground and the story is no different.

Oliver O’Brien, researcher in geovisualisation and web mapping at University College London’s department of geography, has created a map showing what the most common second language (after English) is at certain tube stops across the capital.

Using a map of tube journeys and busy stations that he had previously created, O’Brien used 2011 Census data to add the second most commonly spoken language that people who live nearby speak."

This map is an excellent way to introduce the concept of ethnic neighborhoods and show how they spatially form and what ties them together. This other article shows how the spatial arrangement of London's population has changed from 1939 to today.

This map/infographic really puts things into perspective. Generally, we tend to think of Russia, China, or Canada, among others when we think of large countries. Somehow, Brazil doesn't always spring to mind despite the fact that it really is quite large. Any country which could fit more than half the countries of Europe within its borders is clearly not a small one. These kinds of things are always very interesting to me personally because they really provide some perspective about how we perceive the world and some misconceptions that we may have about certain things.

I think this map/infographic also exposes a big problem that we run into with map projections. Many times, maps end up being so distorted and skewed (usually to the benefit of North America/U.S.) that the rest of the world appears very different than it actually is. Africa usually appears much smaller than it actually is, Europe and the United States appear larger than they are, and distances and scales are butchered. South America, and Brazil in particular, are by no means immune to this phenomenon, so it is no surprise that many people don't realize just how big it is. Unfortunately, it takes an image like the one above for people to realize just how big some countries are and how unreliable map projections can be.

"Have you ever wanted to be the center of attention so badly that you cut Asia in half?" This question comes from the notion of euro-centricity in maps, portraying America and Europe as the centers of the world, distorting the worlds perspective. In the same way, people tend to view Europe as a massive entity that dominates the northern hemisphere, leaving other countries to live in their shadow as smaller entities. Brazil is the biggest country in South America, but is dwarfed in its depiction in maps and globes. This is similar to what is seen in Africa. People's sense of spacial awareness is warped by inaccuracy in maps.

Popular culture is shaped by taste-makers, counter-cultural movements, and the blending of cultural practices in new ways creating a distinct aesthetic. Often, the physical geography of a region plays a crucial role in shaping the cultural practices particular to their environment. All of that can be seen quite vividly in the colorful skating revolution of the 1970s that took shape in the Southern California. Kids who grew up idolizing surfers branched out their recreational habits into the modern form of skating that we see today at the X Games. Made legendary through a series of Skateboarder magazine articles, these kids shaped the cultural ethos of skateboarding for over a generation. With the coastal influence of surfing, the socioeconomics of a seaside slum, it’s abandoned piers, the ubiquity of cement and asphalt in the urban landscape, the run-down neighborhood of “Dogtown” was home to cultural movement. The fierce droughts of the 1970 meant abandoned swimming pools; that drought led surfers to the technological infrastructure for modern skating ramps and half pipes as they skated in emptied swimming pools. As stated in those Skaterboarder articles, “two hundred years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground of unlimited potential. But it was the minds of 11 year olds that could see that potential.” The documentary “Dogtown and Z-Boys” (trailer) and the fictionalized “Lords of Dogtown,” (trailer) both produced by skater turned filmmaker Stacy Peralta, chronicle the age (“Lords of Dogtown” is not appropriate for the K-12 classroom viewing).

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